Successful advocacy starts with having a crystal-clear vision of a target audience. It is essential to have a core focus on the audience and the alignment of the communication plan with the organization's goals. While it’s tempting to follow trends because everyone else is doing it, take a pause before you jump onto every possible platform. Try to methodically assess each channel to determine its potential value and compatibility with your organization's objectives. Approach engagement with a solid database awareness of what the organization wants to accomplish. In our increasingly connected world, adopting a multi-channel strategy is integral to reaching diverse audiences across multiple platforms. Creating a persona helps clarify the tone, tool, and outcome that the organization wants to achieve because you have a specific individual to aim for rather than a general group. Following best practices for your campaigns also means respecting your contacts and authorities that monitor communications.

This post includes climate and environment headlines, data points, and key takeaways from recent public polls - including new polling on federal government cuts and an update of Yale and GMU’s “Six Americas” segmentation analysis.

Over the past ten years, Americans who are “Alarmed” have grown more than any other audience, from 15% in 2014 to 26% in 2024 (+11 percentage points). Conversely, the Cautious have decreased in size the most during that time, from 23% in 2014 to 18% in 2024 (-5 percentage points). Additionally, the percentage of Americans who are either Alarmed or Concerned has increased from 47% in 2014 to 54% in 2024 (+7 percentage points). The Disengaged, Doubtful and Dismissive audiences have remained relatively similar in size over the past decade. Different audiences in the Six Americas have different knowledge needs. Alarmed and Concerned Americans are most interested in learning about solutions to climate change, and may be most responsive to messages asking them to get involved. The Cautious and Doubtful, in contrast, want to know more about the causes and evidence that climate change is happening, and may be most responsive to messaging that explains the scientific consensus around global warming.

Public opinion about global warming is an important influence on decision-making about policies to reduce global warming or prepare for the impacts, but American opinions vary widely depending on where people live. These national surveys show that 72% of Americans think global warming is happening. This new Climate Opinion Maps model estimates, however, show that only 53% of people in Emery County, Utah agree. Meanwhile 72% in neighboring Grand County, Utah believe global warming is happening. Explore the maps by clicking on a state, congressional district, metro area, or county and compare the results across questions and with other geographic areas. This version of the Yale Climate Opinion Maps is based on survey data from 2008 through fall 2024. Public opinion polling is generally done at the national level because local-level polling is very costly and time-intensive. However, Yale developed a geographic and statistical model to downscale national public opinion results to the state, congressional district, and county levels.

This post includes climate and environment headlines, data points, and key takeaways from recent public polls - including new polling on federal funding cuts, the Trump administration’s early actions on energy and the environment, and Americans’ concerns about climate change and extreme weather.

Trump’s early actions on climate change and clean energy are unpopular; Americans particularly disapprove of halting wind energy projects, as they believe that stopping clean energy projects will hurt job growth. 57% of Americans oppose the Trump administration’s action to halt new wind energy projects. 57% of Americans agree that the Trump administration will hurt job growth by stopping clean energy projects. 61% of Americans agree that the Trump administration’s plan to increase oil and gas drilling will harm air and water quality. 60% of Americans agree that the Trump administration’s plan to increase oil and gas drilling will increase pollution and harm people’s health. Independents oppose the halting of wind energy projects by a 22-point margin (39% support / 61% oppose), oppose the IRA funding pause by a 20-point margin (40% support / 60% oppose), and oppose the Paris Agreement withdrawal by a 12-point margin (44% support / 56% oppose).

This post includes climate and environment headlines, data points, and key takeaways from recent public polls - including new polling about federal funding cuts, including to national parks and forests, and new polling about carbon dioxide removal (CDR).

Majorities of Americans continue to say that they’ve been impacted by extreme weather and that climate change was a factor behind it, and most are concerned that climate change will increase property insurance premiums. 72% of Americans recognize that climate change is happening. 72% of Americans who self-report experience with extreme weather in recent years say that climate change was a cause. While Democrats (89%) and independents (72%) overwhelmingly attribute their experiences with extreme weather to climate change, Republicans are more split (43% climate change was a cause / 55% climate change was not a cause). Most also believe that climate change will have a major impact on their lives in specific ways, such as affecting the air quality where they live (65%), their personal health (56%), and the availability of water in their area (55%). Majorities say that they’re either “extremely” or “very” concerned that climate change will increase property insurance premiums for households (59%) and increase energy costs for households (55%).

Most voters are concerned about the extent of recent government funding cuts and layoffs, and there are a wide variety of salient examples to point to–including cuts to disaster relief. 67% of voters are concerned about the Trump administration cutting disaster relief for events like wildfires, hurricanes, and tornadoes, including 44% who are “very concerned” about these cuts. On balance, voters say that Trump’s cuts to government spending make them feel more positively than negatively about him (42% more positive / 36% more negative). However, by double digits, voters say that Elon Musk’s involvement in the administration (33% more positive / 45% more negative) and the way that Trump has fired workers and attempted to close government agencies (33% more positive / 44% more negative) have more of a negative than positive impact on how they view Trump. While most voters also say that they’re at least “somewhat” concerned about firing park rangers at the National Park Service (58%), there is relatively less intensity behind this concern (35% “very concerned”) than for cutting disaster relief or for the other top-testing items in the survey.

Some Americans recognize the health harms of global warming, but many do not. Many Americans have thought (32%) or worried (28%) a “great deal” or “moderate amount” about the health harms of global warming, similar to the percentages in 2014. 39% of Americans think Americans’ health is being harmed by global warming “a great deal” or “a moderate amount,” an 8 percentage point increase from 2014. However, only 16% think their own health is being harmed by global warming a “great deal” or a “moderate amount.” 47% of Americans understand that some groups in the U.S. are more likely than others to experience the health harms of global warming, +13 points since 2014. When asked to name groups more likely than others to be affected, Americans most commonly identify low-income people (18%, +12 points since 2014), older adults (7%), people with health conditions (6%), and people of color (6%, +5 points). Most Americans think coal (65%) harms people’s health, and many think natural gas does (38%, +9 points since 2018). 39% of Americans think federal agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) should do more to protect people from health harms related to global warming.